apple

Hey techies, don't bother putting money down on whether the Celtics are the future NBA champions. Not when you can place a bet on Steve Jobs.

A gaming company called Bodog is taking wagers on when Apple's iTunes Store will surpass Wal-Mart as the top U.S. music retailer.

CNET News.com reported on Tuesday that research firm NPD Group is predicting that Apple will emerge as the largest U.S. music retailer sometime in 2008. NPD also reported that Apple has recently leapfrogged over Best Buy and Target in music sales.

It should be noted that neither … Read more

Apple distributed invitations Wednesday morning for "an iPhone software road map" event next week, which means we're finally going to hear details on the plans for an iPhone software development kit.

As you might be aware, next week is March, not February, which means Apple will have missed its deadline for shipping the SDK this month. Still, on Thursday, March 6, at 10 a.m. PST the company will hold a "town hall" meeting at its headquarters in Cupertino to discuss the State of the iPhone, and probably answer several questions about how iPhone application … Read more

Apple's iTunes will likely whip past Wal-Mart Stores to become the largest U.S. music retailer sometime this year.

The NPD Group issued a report Tuesday that said Apple had outpaced Best Buy and Target to become the No. 2 U.S. music retailer. Unless the downward trend in CD sales suddenly reverses, Apple will be No. 1, said Russ Crupnick, the NPD Group's president of Music.

"Digital sales were up close to 50 percent and CD sales were down 20 percent last year," Crupnick said. "Even at half that growth rate in digital sales, … Read more

Some conflicting accounts coming out of the Web-o-sphere on Tuesday about Apple's revamped MacBook Pro laptops. At the heart of the controversy are reports that the new 15- and 17-inch Pro models have taken a nosedive on battery life, despite the inclusion of allegedly power-saving Intel Penryn processors.

Both Ars Technica and Gizmodo pointed out that Apple's own numbers on how long the battery should last in a 17-inch MacBook Pro have changed with the new models--going from more than 5 hours to only 4.5 hours.

There are actually a couple of different things going on here, … Read more

Browsing the headlines on Yahoo Finance this morning was enough to make anyone briefly consider jumping out the window. To wit:

• Job worries sink consumer confidence • S&P: U.S. home prices down sharply • U.S. home foreclosures soar in January • Harsh light shines on iPhone, iPod sales

So here's the multiple choice test: Which headline does not fit with the rest? If you chose letter "D" you win a dream date with my colleague Michael Kanellos (No worries: Kanellos is off reporting on start-ups in Ireland this week, and so you'… Read more

Apple is betting that the iPhone's breakthrough in the way we interact with mobile phones will transfer over to notebooks.

The new MacBook Pros and MacBooks introduced Tuesday aren't all that much different from the ones that were on sale yesterday. Sure, they've got Intel's new Penryn chips, and more potent configurations, but for the most part, it's the same laptop. That is, with one notable exception.

Apple brought the gesture-recognition technology first introduced on the MacBook Air over to the new MacBook Pro systems, which will likely ship in much larger volumes than the … Read more

YouTube returns to Pakistan: Everything's right on the Internet, for now http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/everythings-right-in-the-internet-for-now/

How Pakistan knocked YouTube offline (and how to make sure it never happens again) http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9878655-7.html

ICANN, Network Solutions sued for domain tasting http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080226-bad-flavor-icann-network-solutions-sued-for-domain-tasting.html

Apple updates MacBook, MacBook Pro lineups http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9879198-7.html

Apple’s iTunes grows to No. 2 U.S. music retailer http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080226/media_nm/apple_itunes_dc

Internet service providers filter http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23274585-15306,00.html… Read more

It's not a software development kit, but there is something new today for iPhone owners.

Apple released OS X firmware update 1.1.4 Tuesday for the iPhone, saying little about the new features. The last update, 1.1.3, introduced a few new capabilities such as the ability to customize the home page, but the only thing noted as new in 1.1.4 are "bug fixes," which are probably welcome.

It's not clear at this early juncture whether the new update does anything to the legions of jailbroken and unlocked iPhones out in the … Read more

Recent iPhone ads have touted the utility of having the iPhone on a trip. Vacationing with the iPhone is a great convenience, but also makes it harder to vacation.

Using the quasi-GPS and Google Maps, being able to make dinner reservations, forsaking tour guidebooks and printed itineraries it great. On a recent long weekend to Hawaii, my friends and I discovered and confirmed the utility of the iPhone features on the road. So much so, we didn't even bring our laptops, which is a big deal for some of us. Really, it is. The only physical complaint I had … Read more